In the HR world, new technology is often looked at with a level of scepticism. The emergence of artificial intelligence taking over our jobs is the current kid causing some worries. The fact that both Stephen Hawkins and Bill Gates have been speaking about a revolution of how artificial intelligence will be the overhaul of jobs as we know it, is founding some of these fears.
Artificial intelligence is a system that can understand, reason, learn, and respond based on evaluating large amounts of data. It can be just a computer program or a installed in a fully functioning robot.
The days of robots walking around offices instead of people, are probably a few decades away. But at the same time, some of the more menial tasks may be executed a lot more effectively through artificial intelligence led machines. According to Elon Musk, a computer can communicate at a trillion bits per second and a human through writing on a mobile device at 10 bits per second. So when it comes to productivity they may find a place in our workplace.
So far the areas that humans are still needed for include:
- creativity
- influencing others
- understanding human emotions
- ability to handle poorly described problems
- subject matter expertise with understanding for contextual finesses and applications
This is by no means the exhaustive list, and I am also sure that some department somewhere is looking to build these abilities into algorithms that we will in time find in intelligent machines. At the same time, humans will have a place too in a world invaded by machines. Most vitally we can shape how we integrate them and make the combination of resources work for the best positive outcomes.
Some of the questions for HR and management are about “How will robots enhance our work?” and “How do we want them to fit into our organisations?” as well as “What will humans bring to the equation?”, “Where can both be most effective?”
Whilst it won’t happen widespread for probably a decade or two with the speed of change consistently increasing, the usability is something to start considering today. In some circles, it has triggered the discussion around basic universal wages given to all citizens by governments. My question to you is how will you deal with artificial intelligence as a resource in the mix of managing human resources?
In gamification design, we can see benefits from artificial intelligence in the areas of user research, because a lot of behavioural data exist and can be processed a lot quicker and objectively than when humans analyse data. Equally when going live with a digital gamification implementation, correction requirements and trends may be much more quickly spotted through a robot instead of a person. So in my view it will make our work more interesting, where mainly the creative side will remain and the robotic side can do the data analytics to help us make better informed objective decisions.
